Well it looks like no shadow for the groundhog – so Punxsutawney Phil is predicting an early spring. I hope he is right. Even though the winter has been really mild here, I’m ready to get outside and start digging in the dirt.

Since I was thinking spring, I decided to upgrade my “front of the fridge emergency grocery list” from a piece of notepaper torn out of a spiral notebook to something a bit more springy.

(I have to confess – one of my favorite things to do when my kids whine about being out of something they need, is to point out that they did not put it on the list…. I guess I’m easily amused, and maybe a bit passive aggressive..)

I decided I really want to spend some time on other creative projects, so I’ve decided to retire from the Digichick. I have loved my 5 years there. The community is just amazing and if you are looking for a digi-home, its a great place to be.

The good news is my store is on sale for 50% off till the end of the month.

I will still have products in the store here, and will be posting projects, tutorials and freebies on the blog. But honestly, it will be more on a whim than on a regular schedule. Hopefully you can pop by whenever you get a chance.

I have a little farewell gift for you to help with any valentine crafting. You can download this free paper pack here.

Hi all. Its Christmas card making season so I thought I’d share a little tutorial on how to combine digital cutting files with digital scrapbooking supplies to make layered greeting cards. Its a bit long, but almost all pictures.

First, I opened the cutting file for the card I wanted to make in my Silhouette Studio software. I selected all the lines, went to the line style window and set the line thickness to zero. This makes sure the lines to not show up on my finished print and cut.

I want to fill the cutting file shapes with patterned papers from the Holiday Home Digital Kit. To do this, I simply add the papers to the pattern library in the Silhouette software. Open the library (book icon), click my patterns. ( You can add a sub-folder to help with organization.) Then just drag the papers you want into the library.

Close the library and click on the pattern icon. Scroll down and you will find the papers you just added.

To add the papers, just select a shape and click on the paper you want. You can scale the pattern larger or smaller using the scale tool (patterns often come in very small). You can also use the pan tool if you want to move the pattern around inside the shape.

Then you need to set the cut lines – just choose the cutting window, select all the things you want to cut and click “cut”. You can also choose the material type here. I print my stuff on matte presentation paper and I use the standard patterned paper settings.

Now – if you want to get a bit fancier…

Sometimes if you have a detailed cut, the cut and the pattern fill will not match up exactly so when you cut you get tiny white edges or corners. This scalloped circle would probably be fine, but just in case I’m going to use the expanded fill trick.

Choose the shape and go to the off-set path window. Choose offset and set a small distance (I usually use 0.05 inches). Hit apply. The offset will be selected – keep it selected.

Go to the pattern window and click the paper to fill the expanded shape with the paper pattern. Keep the shape selected.

Go to the cut window and choose no cut. Now the expanded pattern fill will print, but the cut will be to original cut line. This will give you a little patterned filled edge so if the cut line is off, it will not have any white edges.

Group the cut line and the offset shape together so when you move them they stay together. Just select the shape and cut line and hit CNTR-G.

Now you can add any decorative pieces from the kit that you would like. In this case I chose a flower cluster and a label. I just opened them in the studio software, copied them and pasted them in my document. You can resize them to better fit your card if necessary.

Create cut lines for these elements. Open the trace window, choose select trace area and trace over the decorative element. Uncheck the high pass filter and slide the threshold right until you get an nice solid yellow fill. Then choose trace outer edge.

This is a detailed cut, and you could expand the fill area like we did for the scalloped circle, but since the edge of the element is pretty much white already – I’m not going to worry about it. Any missed edges would never show.

Go ahead and trace the label too.

Keep in mind that the new cut line and the element image are 2 different pieces (see below). If you try to move it they will separate – so I always group them together after I make them.

Check the cut and print borders and scoot the pieces around to stay inside the borders. Then just send it to print. I print on matte presentation paper that I just buy at the office supply store. Make sure you adjust your printer settings to tell the printer the type of paper you are using – it makes a huge difference in print quality.

Cut it in your Silhouette – and you have all your card pieces. All you need is a cardstock base to glue them on. I like to pop up a few pieces of my card with foam tape and the rest I just glue in place. Its also fun to add embellishments like ribbons or gems or glitter.

Save this file as a .studio and you can make this card again any time just by printing can cutting.